I often get asked about the financial side of starting a website. Like any business, online business to requires your investment. Luckily, you don’t have to save up a lot in advance in order to start a profitable website. In this post, I wanted to lay out 6 main expenses you will need to make to get the ball rolling.

#1 Laptop or another smart device

No surprise here, you will need a digital device in order to start and maintain a website. I personally do most of my work on my MacBook Pro, but any working laptop would do. All you need is access to an internet browser and the ability to type. Of course, a well-working device will make your life way easier, but you don’t have to invest into expensive devices straight away, if you have an old computer or a tablet, it can be all you need for the beginning.

Additional expense: $500 (refurbished MacBook Air).

#2 Web hosting + domain

Now once you’ve figured out what device you’re going to use for running your blog, you will need to actually register a website. To do this, you will need to take care of your web hosting and a domain name. If you’re starting fresh, both of these words might sound like a complete mystery to you, so let me explain this.

What is web hosting?

A web hosting service is a type of Internet hosting service. It allows people and companies to make their website available on the World Wide Web. Web hosts are companies which provide space on a server which is owned or leased for use by customers.

When it comes to blogging, you will need to get web hosting services if you decide to start your blog on self-hosted WordPress.org, you can read more about the benefits of going self-hosted over here.

You should be very careful when choosing a web host tho. Not only your blog security highly depends on the provider you go with, it can also mean a great deal to your SEO. If you’re not sure which company is the best in the game, read my review here.

What is a domain name?

The purpose of a domain name is to create a name for your websites and/or email address. When it comes to self-hosted WordPress.org, you will already get a domain name when signing up for web-hosting services.

However, if you use free platforms such as wordpress.com or blogger.com, your domain name will contain a name of the platform as well, so instead of having www.yourblog.com, you will have something like www.yourblog.blogger.com.

Unfortunately, it doesn’t look very professional and if you’re trying to grow a blog and hopefully land some sponsorship deals- you should think about getting a custom domain.

No doubts, web hosting + domain is a must investment, just make sure to use a trustworthy service that will make you feel secure and taken care of.

Necessary expense: $3.95/month (find this deal on Bluehost).

#3 Professional Website Theme

You might think that the design part of your blog is something you will be able to take care of at a later stage of growing your business. However, when you think about it, your website design is the first thing people see when they visit your blog. You will be working hard on bringing the audience to your website in the first few months especially. You don’t want to risk and have people think that you’re not taking this seriously. Make sure to choose and install a professional website theme as soon as you have your website registered.

Lucky for you, this doesn’t require any technical skills and setting up a theme on your website is a fairly simple process. Alternatively, you can always choose to use any of Kotryna Bass Design themes and benefit from free installation services.

Necessary expense: $49 + FREE installation included (choose your theme here).

#4 Digital camera or a smartphone

Let me be clear on this, you don’t need to get fancy photography equipment for launching a profitable website. However, having some kind of digital camera or at least a smartphone can help you create personalized visuals for your online brand.

Social media is a big part of online success and Instagram can be a very powerful tool that will help you get those first clients. Many Instagrammers I know use nothing more than their iPhone camera to grab those mind-blowing shots and with the right editing and great light- everything is possible.

Additional expense: $540 (refurbished iPhone 8 plus).

#5 Adobe subscription

Adobe Photoshop & Lightroom are two software programmes I personally use every single day while working on my online businesses. From creating eye-catching newsletter headings to editing my images, Adobe subscription is one of the monthly payments I am more than glad to make.

Of course, you can also use free tools such as Canva if you don’t feel like investing just yet, but put this on your expenses list for the future at least and make sure to dedicate some time for getting to learn these two programmes.

Want to learn how I edit my images as a blogger using Lightroom? Read this post.

Additional expense: 9,99$/month.

#6 Knowledge

I can’t really see investing in your personal growth as an expense, but the truth is- quality e-courses and services cost real money. Of course, you can take advantage of plenty of free courses available out there, but I would seriously consider spending some extra $$ on a course that would really skyrocket your creativity and motivation or hire someone to consult you on this new patch.

Additional expense: $200-500 (depending on your needs, find my favorite online courses over here).

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Hope this post made things at least a bit more clear. How much you want to invest in your business is completely up to you, but it is necessary to understand that in order to make money, you quite often need to spend money. Luckily, this type of business can easily be started on a minimal budget.